How many theeth out of time still runs?

[GreenMadness]

I Just am wondering, how many theeth out would bend valves and how many out will stop the engine from running? I had the bottom at TDC and the "plus" on the fly wheel was perfect the cam was off by about one tooth and my distributor was all the way back, so i moved it one tooth and put the belt back on, but it seems like the distributor still needs to be back all the way inorder to have the correct throttle response, if not it hessitates badly.

I did a compression test and it was 150 on all cylinders? i think its the gauge cause with a diffrent one it was 170 on all cylinders.

So is it possible that the cam was actually 2 theeth out, i would not think the car could have ran that good and got decient gas milage.

[customchord]

2 it probably wouldn't idle. But it depends on wich way it was out. Anything more than 3 teeth is were you start bending things. Do a leak down test to see if the valves are sealing right and aren't bent.

[NAiL05]

Recheck all your marks and see if they line up. Easiest thing to do. When you start bending shit you will know and it will be too late. Most honda engines are interference motors.

[GreenMadness]

im aware of the interferance design and im a mechanical engineering student, so i know im on a thin wire... thats why i dont think the engine could run being more than 1 tooth out of time. but as i was thinking about it, when does the pistion hitting the valves actually happen? if you broke your timing belt would it be right away or half way through the next rotation that the piston would hit it?

[GreenMadness]

i did a compression before i retimed it and it was 150 on all 4 cyl. after the retiming its i 170 on all but #3 which is 145 so im not sure whats going on, the engine hasn't be ran for a while and i dont trust the gas enough to rev it up.

I hooked up a weird gauge that has the vaccum pressure and tells if the cam is out of time or the ignition, and it says the cam is good but i have to push the distributor all the way back (Still ) to get the gauge to read 20 mm/hg whigh is good on the gauge.

ANy ideas?

[customchord]

If you use a leak down tester then it well tell you if the cylinder is holding pressure or loosing it meaning you could have a bent valve or bad rings.

[NAiL05]

Leak down is the next option. Put some oil in the combustion chamber and run the test again. Does the pressure go up? If it does its a good indication of ring wear. We played with a mitsubishi on this we advanced it 3 teeth and it barely ran. Took forever to start and when it ran it sounded like it had a cam in there if not worse. We put it back to 2 teeth and it ran decently well other than some high Nox values from the exhaust. Anyway every engine is different obviously.

[GreenMadness]

will a timing light let me know if the camshaft is correct. i.e. if 15 degrees is obtainable with my distributor ?

[customchord]

To see if the timeing is right take off the timing belt covers. Turn the crank so the timing marks line up and then look to see if the gear(s) are lined up.

[bcjammerx]

it will run 1 tooth out...seen it done on my buddies...all be it shitty running.

Not a good idea of course. I'd say 2 is dangerous dangerous...3 deff...could be wrong as I've never tried it

I'd do leak down as mentioned...recheck EVERYTHING...balance shaft belt too

[Granite CB7]

Last summer my tensioner came loose on my F22a, cam was retarded by 2 teeth. It was incredibly loud, idled perfectly, had great part throttle low end response, and high end was non-existant!

[GreenMadness]

well i got to do the leak down and another compression, i got the timing marks lined up and the timing gun was shooting a perfect 15 degrees... the car feels awsome, i forgot how it felt to have power below 4k!

[marcbh]

When my water pump went out i set the cam 1 1/2 teeth out of time it would run but shut off as soon as you let of the gas we did a compression test and luckly i did not bend a valve so i got lucky